Singapore stocks: STI resumes Thursday afternoon down 0.9% on day

SINGAPORE equities resumed trading on Thursday afternoon extending the early session's losses, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 26.75 points or 0.9 per cent to 3,090.77 as at 1.03pm.

Market sentiment remains dented by uncertainty surrounding Covid-19. This has left investors busy trying to price in the economic impact of the virus outbreak, which has spread to Europe and the Middle East.

Shortly after the afternoon session began, volume traded on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 878.4 million securities with a total turnover of S$769.5 million. Both volume and turnover are on track to beat their respective 2019 intraday averages.

Across the market, decliners beat advancers 238 to 134. The bluechip index had 26 of the 30 counters trading in the red.

Genting Singapore was the STI's most active counter. The casino operator traded 1.5 Singapore cents or 1.8 per cent lower at 82.5 cents on 22 million shares changing hands.

The local banks declined in the afternoon trade. DBS shares lost S$0.15 or 0.6 per cent to S$24.51, OCBC Bank fell S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$10.78 and United Overseas Bank was trading at S$25.02, down S$0.11 or 0.4 per cent as at 1.03pm on Thursday.

Among property related listings, shares in PropNex edged up 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.9 per cent to 55.5 cents after the real estate agency reported that its Q4 net profit more than quadrupled to S$8.2 million from the year-ago period.

PropNex attributed higher revenue to a surge in commission income from project marketing services.

Meanwhile, Centurion Corporation eased 0.5 Singapore cents or 1.1 per cent to 46.5 cents after reporting on Thursday that bottomline for Q4 rose 38 per cent to S$73.1 million. Topline for the dormitory owner and operator was up 15 per cent to S$36 million.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, equity benchmarks in Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan were lower in the afternoon.

Bucking the trend were Malaysia as well as China's Shanghai Composite Index, which is getting a lift from fewer virus deaths and hopes of further stimulus.